Volume 2, Issue 3, September 2013
The Metaphysics of Time and Modality
Giovanni Merlo
Pages 248-257
Specialness and Egalitarianism
There are two intuitions about time. The first is that there’s something special about the present that objectively differentiates it from the past and the future. Call this intuition Specialness. The second is that the time at which we happen to live is just one amongmany other times, all of which are ‘on a par’ when it comes to their forming part of reality. Call this other intuition Egalitarianism. Tradition has it that the so-called ‘A-theories of time’ fare well at addressing the first intuition, but rather badly when it comes to the second. The goal of this article is to offer advice to A-theorists about how to reconcile their view with Egalitarianism.